Use laptop as monitor

Earthquake researchers in California hope to take advantage of the motion sensors in laptops to create an earthquake-sensing network. By putting computers in homes and businesses to work as seismic monitors, the researchers hope to pull together a wealth of information on major quakes, and perhaps even offer early warnings, giving a few seconds’ notice of a potentially devastating quake. The Quake Catcher Network (QCN) is in the beta testing stage, with links to several hundred laptops. It’s a distributed computing network, like [email protected], which searches for intelligent signals from space, and [email protected], which focuses on protein folding. Machines in the earthquake network would monitor motion and report big shakes to a central server. If a horde of reports came in from a particular area, it could indicate an earthquake. The network will initially focus on the quake-prone San Francisco Bay and the Greater Los Angeles Basin areas of California. “Were not … [Read more...] about Laptops as Earthquake Sensors

The new Dell XPS 13 is one of our favorite laptops thanks to its long battery life. It lasted nearly ten hours in our Peacekeeper web browsing test, even with a pixel-dense 3,200 x 1,800 display, beating systems from 2014 with ease.Intel’s efficient new fifth-generation Core chips are part of the reason for the XPS 13’s excellent life, of course, but some of the credit goes to a power-sipping display technology known as Indium-Gallium-Zinc-Oxide (IGZO). IGZO seems certain to crush the older generation of LCD display in 2015.But it’s only the tip of the iceberg. A swarm of new display technologies will appear in 2015 and 2016, and some will reach products that you plan on purchasing. So what new display technology can you look forward to in 2015?How display technologies workBefore we dive into why these new display technologies are awesome, it’s important to talk about what they are. Otherwise, IZGO and its contemporaries … [Read more...] about Your next laptop will have an awesome display. Here’s why

There is an ongoing legal dispute taking place between St. Jude Medical Inc. and several companies and individuals over specific cardiac implants that are monitored by the Merlin.net Patient Care Network (PCN). The latest chapter in the ongoing battle appeared on Monday in a legal brief stating that cyber security experts hired by one of the defendants, Muddy Waters, have validated vulnerabilities in St. Jude’s monitoring service.PCN is a service that monitors and reports cardiac information stemming from St. Jude Medical implanted devices spanning pacemakers (Assurity and Endurity) and Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators (Ellipse and Fortify Assura). The provided [email protected] transmitter sits by the bedside and monitors the patient’s implant while they sleep, sending the information over a telephone, cellular, or broadband connection. This prevents patients from having to make a visit to the doctor for a device check.However, hackers can reportedly gain access to these … [Read more...] about Hackers can use heart-rate monitors to send jolts to cardiac implants, experts say

At this year’s CES, MSI unveiled a fresh line of laptops and desktops aimed to take the PC gaming world by storm.Whether you’re looking for a lighter solution to get your fragging fix, a brawny beast that will tackle all the latest titles on its own, or even a new, innovative way to plug a desktop card into your mobile notebook, MSI has your gaming desires covered.GT80 Titan SLIThe GT80 Titan SLI combines two of gamer’s favorite features; mechanical keyboards and SLI graphics setups, into one monster of a machine.Featuring a dual NVIDIA GTX 980M GPU setup in SLI, a whopping 24GB of DDR3 RAM, and an Intel Core i7-4990HQ processor, this computer will any title at the system’s maximum resolution of 1080p without breaking a sweat. The GPUs aren’t soldered on, either, so they can be upgraded in the future. With that said, it’s not clear how easy it’ll be to perform the upgrade at home.The laptop will also come with a built in mechanical … [Read more...] about MSI takes a titanic step forward with a massive gaming laptop and a graphics card dock

You can hook up monitors to your MacBook laptops for more screen space to tool around or just to make your screen much larger. We’ll show you how to hook up a second monitor to your laptop and we’ll also discuss mirroring which lets you use the same mouse and keyboard on both screens. You can use both monitors together or you can just make the larger new monitor your main screen.Hooking up the monitor:1. You’ll need a couple of things for this process: A DVI or VGA equipped monitor, a mini-DVI adapter or a mini-DVI-VGA adapter, and a DVI or VGA cable2. Connect the cables and adapters to your new monitor and laptop. To find the plug in for the laptop look on the left side of the laptop where you plug the power cable in. One of the symbols should look like IOI (except the O is more square). That is your mini-DVI port. 3. You’re all hooked up. Go into “System Preferences” – which can be found by clicking the Apple icon in the upper left … [Read more...] about How To: Use a monitor with a MacBook laptop

Over the last several months, we’ve noticed a trend in a few recently reviewed notebooks. Certain laptops have shipped with 1440p resolution missing, when we’d expect to be present. This resolution, which boasts 2,560 × 1,440 pixels, used to be the best PC owners could expect.When we benchmark laptops — especially those with a discrete, stand-alone graphics chip — we rely on 1080p and 1440p resolutions to gauge performance.Yet in recent reviews, we noticed that the 1440p display setting was missing on certain laptops. Its a odd oversight, because it means the laptop might be hard to use with an external monitor. Or, when a laptop has a native 4K display, the lack of 1440p eliminates an attractive second-best resolution if the laptop can’t handle 4K resolution when gaming.It’s an unusual turn of events, so we dug into why it’s happening.Easier use means fewer optionsWhen we asked HP about the lack of a 1440p resolution in its ZBook Studio … [Read more...] about Is 1440p resolution missing from your laptop? Here’s what happened

Data Analysis Tech Watch: Curious about Your Vital Signs? Check Your LaptopThe cameras and MP3 players are fun, but the next wave of add-ons for cell phones and laptops may help users keep track of their health. click the image to enlarge University of Florida engineering researchers Xiuge Yang (seated), Jenshan Lin (middle) and Yanming Xiao (left), watch as a laptop displays Yang’s heart and breathing rates as monitored by newly developed wireless technology. A University of Florida engineer has built a working prototype for a small, portable system that can monitor a person’s breathing and heart rate automatically via wireless signal, with no need for cords or plugs. The goal is to make it easy for people to check their own vital signs, and then transmit them in real time to medical personnel through a cell phone or Internet connection, all with little more than a press of a button. “The initial idea is that elderly people … [Read more...] about Tech Watch: Curious about Your Vital Signs? Check Your Laptop

I was tempted to pick FUD as a topic and talk about how McCain's use of it killed his campaign. However, last week we had two major launches, one of which was Apple releasing its latest notebooks and embracing graphics as a defining feature but avoiding Blu-ray and HDMI.Apple works to drive the markets it occupies and is successful more often than not, but Google's Android launch is an attempt to dispute Apple's iPhone leadership and perhaps leapfrog Apple into dominance of the smartphone segment. I've been using the new G1 phone from HTC for about a week and it is in some ways more impressive than the first-generation iPhone.We'll talk about both of these things this week and conclude with my product of the week, the Archos 5 media player, which is probably the best portable media player you've never heard of. (Probably should be the Archos tag line). Apple was so excited about its new case designs that it passed empty cases up and down the rows at the launch. The writers inserted a … [Read more...] about OPINION Apple and Google Try to Remap Laptop, Smartphone Landscape

As IT departments battle trojans, viruses and worms, one particularly nasty critter is still finding myriad ways to slither onto enterprise PCs. Spyware, usually considered an annoyance of home users, has been showing up more often in the corporate world, and it is bad news for business users."For the most part, organizations are blind to it," Forrester analyst Michael Rasmussen told the E-Commerce Times. "They focus on viruses and don't think about the danger that spyware represents. Because of this, I think it'll get worse before it gets better."What can companies do to defend themselves against this largely unseen scourge?In a nutshell, spyware is defined as any technology that helps gather information about a person or organization without their knowledge. It can infiltrate a computer through a virus or, more often, as the result of a user's decision to install a new program or download a file from the Internet.Some spyware programs are relatively benign, used only to monitor … [Read more...] about Spyware as Enterprise Achilles Heel

Choosing the right laptop can be a complicated process, given the notable differences in terms of both design and hardware unique to each brand. When you buy a laptop, keep in mind exactly what you will be using your laptop for, whether you intend to lug it from place to place or simply use it as a device to snuggle up with in bed. There is a good deal to consider, so let us guide you through the process.There are several laptop categories, manufactured with an aim toward a certain use and audience. When shopping for a laptop, decide what you primarily intend to use the laptop for and seek out a category that aligns with those interests. Below are four of the major types, ranging from netbooks to portable gaming rigs.Entry-levelLaptops can be expensive, but by making some cuts many manufacturers produce solid computers that cost $500 or less. Consumers who need a laptop for the most basic purposes (word processing, internet browsing, etc) and want to save money … [Read more...] about Buying a laptop: Everything you need to know, and maybe a little you don’t